Notizen zu dieser Person
Worked in London as "Zuckersieder", mined gold in Australia, farmed inGermany, immigrated with 6 children 1881.
Bio from "Past and Present of Iroquois County, Illinois" by J. W. Kern,M.A. (1907)
Frederick Koester is living on section 13, Ash Grove township, and is classed with the prosperous agriculturists of the locality, for his farming interests embrace four hundred and eighty acres of rich land contained in four well improved farms. Germany has furnished quite a large percentage of the substantial citizens to Iroquois county, among which number is Mr. Koester who was born in Hanover, May 2, 1836. He remained in that country until a young man of eighteen years and enjoyed good common-school advantages during that period. Leaving the fatherland in 1854, he went to London, where he was employed in a sugar factory for twoyears. At London he embarked on a sailing ship bound for Australia andwas upon the water for one hundred and forty-five days, during which time they encountered some very severe storms. The ship leaked badly andthe passage was altogether a very hard one, but at length they safely arrived at Melbourne in July, 1858.
Mr. Koester at once made his way to the gold mines and engaged in the search for the previous metal, spending five years in the mining district. In 1863 he returned to London and thence to Bremen, where he visitedfor a time. He was married there in 1864 and subsequently purchased land in Hanover, where he engaged in farming until 1881. Believing that it would prove advantageous to come to the new world he sold his property in the fatherland and crossed the Atlantic, taking up his abode in Iroquois county, Illinois, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres. There was a little house upon the place and some of the land had been broken. He joined his brother, Henry Koester, who had settled here four years before. Frederick Koester at once began to farm and improve his property and from time to time he added to it, purchasing mostly swampy land, but he ditched, drained and tiled the place and converted thelow, wet land into fields of rich fertility. He also erected a good residence, barns, a milk house, sheds for his hogs and in fact added all modern equipments. He likewise put in stock scales, set out an orchard and forest trees and has made the farm a very valuable and attractive property, it being one of the pleasing features in the landscape. When hestarted to Australia he was a poor young man and landed there in debt.Since that time, through his labor and enterprise, he has worked his way steadily upward and is today the owner of four valuable farms, fromwhich he derives a very gratifying income.
Mr. and Mrs. Koester have five sons and one daughter: Dietrich, who ismarried and is a farmer in Nebraska; Henry, who is married and followsfarming on section 19, Ash Grove township; Fritz, who is married and isan agriculturist living on section 11, Ash Grove township; John, who is married and operates a farm on section 13, Ash Grove township; Herman, who is a student of theology in St. Louis Lutheran College; and Dora,at home. They also lost two children: Gretchen, who was married and ather death left six children; and William, who died at the age of twenty-one years.
Mr. and Mrs. Koester were reared in the Lutheran church and are membersof St. John's church in Ash Grove township. Since becoming an Americancitizen Mr. Koester has given his allegiance to the democracy. His residence in the county covers a quarter of a century and he is well knownin Watseka, Onarga and throughout this portion of the state as a man of intredpid honesty, whose fidelity to his word has gained him the confidence of all. He has had a wide experience and has led a life of varied activity on three continents. His history if given in detail would prove a most entertaining and interesting volume because of its differentphases in the fatherland, in England, in the mines of Australia and inthe new world. He bears a most honored name in the land of his adoption and has here accumulated a goodly fortune.
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Matthias
Steinke
